


The Mummy

by quilleth



Category: Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (Visual Novel), The Mummy (1999)
Genre: Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - The Mummy Fusion, F/M, M/M, Siblings, The Mummy AU, historical accuracy whomst?, willfully playing around with history and archaeology facts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 06:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20737523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quilleth/pseuds/quilleth
Summary: A self indulgent Mummy AU, mostly sticking to the plot and details of the 1999 movie, but with little bits of inspiration from the classic 1930's and 40's Mummy movies as well





	The Mummy

Arms full of books, Elisabeth looked forlornly up at the shelves surrounding her. “Really, has no one else in this entire city ever heard of a proper classification system?” she grumbled to herself as she went through the stack in her arms. “Why half of these don’t even belong together!” With an irritated huff, she yanked the ladder away from its resting place, not noticing when it hit one of the ornate reading stands. Still grumbling under her breath about incompetent patrons and even worse scholars, she had just propped the beastly thing against the shelf housing the “T” books to shelf a volume of Tuthmosis when a loud crash and ominous thudding startled her into turning. The pedestal lay on its side at the base of the shelf opposite, making it wobble dangerously. “Oh no,” she flinched as the shelf finished its perilous movements landing miraculously upright, and heaved a premature sigh of relief. The neighboring shelf crashed backwards, sending next successive shelves sprawling until every carefully cataloged shelf but the first was laying in myriad states of disrepair, and the floor was a mess of all the books, scrolls, and various other accoutrements of a museum archive. Slowly turning to survey the damage she huffed a stray lock of hair out of her face. “Well that could have gone… better,” she murmured to no one in particular.

“Yes, it could have! Honestly, Miss Dai! You are a walking disaster! How do you keep managing to get yourself into these kinds of situations?” The museum curator stood silhouetted in the doorway, an imperious figure, hands on her hips.

“I am sorry. It was an accident, really!”

The curator sighed, “My dear, you say that every time.”

“Yes, but it truly was an accident!”

“It’s not important at the moment. What matters is that this mess is straightened up! I don’t care how long it takes or how you do it, but we have important investors coming tomorrow, and I expect this place to be spotless.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Honestly I don’t even know why we keep you at this rate,” she muttered.

Elisabeth puffed up indignantly. “Why?! I may be a little clumsy, I’ll admit, but I am a good worker! I can read and write ancient Egyptian and hieratic, and I appear to be the only person for miles who can properly catalog a library in the first place, that’s why!”

“We keep you because your family has been some of our best scholars and patrons over the years. Now,” the curator took the volume of Tuthmosis from Elisabeth as though she might yet wreak some new havoc on it if it were left in her care and turned to leave, “You have an awful lot of cleaning to do; I suggest you get started.”

Left alone once more, Elisabeth muttered darkly to herself as she began collecting fallen pages from the floor and stacking them neatly. “Why keep me indeed…walking disaster… hmph!” She affected a mimicking tone, “Your family has been some of our best scholars and patrons.” She huffed, “As if I’ve got none of my own merits. Why, they’re lucky this is too good of a position, or I’d—” she broke off, pausing to listen, almost certain a clanging noise came from the museum. Hearing nothing, she shook her head and went on gathering papers and muttering, starting at a noise form the museum proper. “What on earth could that be?”

“Hello, is someone there?” Disordered archives entirely forgotten in the moment, she grabbed a torch from the sconce and wandered in. With the lights dimmed to only what was necessary for the caretakers to see by, artifacts that by day were thrilling yet harmless took on a decidedly sinister air. “I’m sorry but the museum is closed now. You’ll have to come back in the morning,” she called, jumping slightly as the flickering shadows fell across a pharaoh statue. “Hello? Mohammad is that you?” She shrieked and scrambled back, nearly dropping her torch, as the skeleton in the sarcophagus she was walking by sat up and waved.

“Oh, it’s only me, no need to carry on so,” her brother, sitting next to the skeleton, propping it up, said genially.

“Ooooh!! You- you-!” Elisabeth gasped trying to recover from the scare. “Noah Leander Dai, have you no respect for the dead?!”

“’Course I do,” he replied, making the skeleton wave again while she tried ineffectually to get him away from it. “But sometimes, I think I’d rather like to join them.”

“Oh get out of there you ridiculous, harebrained—!” Elisabeth tugged futilely at his arm. “If you’re so eager to join them I could gladly help you with that right now! I am not in the mood for your mischief! It’s all well and good to make a muck of your own career, but I do not need your help making a mess of my own!”

Clambering out of the sarcophagus at last, the skeleton falling back with a clatter, Noah asked, “Why my dear, sweet, baby sister, what did you do now?” He stumbled as he landed and sat down on the floor.

Elisabeth sat on the plinth of a statue with a sigh. “I’ve made rather a mess in the library I’m afraid, and the Vail scholars rejected my application again.” She looked at her brother with a shrug. “They say I don’t have enough experience in the field.”

“Rotters the lot of them,” Noah replied, scooting closer to give her hands a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll always be here for you, Lizzie.” He released her hands and began fishing around in the pockets of his blazer. “Besides, I’ve got just the thing to cheer you up! If I can just…ah! Here it is!”

“Oh, Noah, not another bazaar trinket! The curator will be furious if I try to bring them another…worthless…thing.. To try to—”she trailed off as she examined the octagonal box. “Where did you find this?”

“On a dig down in Thebes. Please tell me I found something, Lizzie. All my life I’ve never found anything!”

Lining up some of the glyphs on the box’s edge made it click and spring open. Elisabeth grinned. “Noah, my dear brother, I do believe you’ve found something!”

Gleefully he peered over her shoulder at the piece of parchment she was carefully removing from the puzzle box. “Well, what is it?”

“I’m not sure, but whatever it is, it’s very old.” She spread the page delicately over her lap and stared at it. “It’s a map,” she said vaguely as she read the characters of the location titling the map. “A map to—”

“To Hamunaptra!” Noah said almost reverently. “Is that even possible?”

Elisabeth met his gaze, equally awed. “We’ll have to date it and check some records, but I think it very well may be. And _you_ found it!” her voice rose to a squeal of excitement. “Just think what Mother and Father will say!”

Noah was prevented from answering by a worried sounding voice calling from the archives, “Miss Dai? Miss Dai are you alright?”

“Oh blast!” Elisabeth muttered. “I forgot about— Yes, yes I am quite well!” she called, getting to her feet and hiding the box behind her back.

A man stepped into the museum at her response and said, “Miss Dai, whatever happened to the library? You’re sure you’re well?”

“Oh, hello Mr. Argent. I didn’t know you were still here.”

“I was just about to leave and saw the archives on passing.”

“Ah yes. There was a little accident with the ladder, that’s all.”

“Again?” he replied, adding after a brief pause, “Do you need help rearranging everything?”

“Oh, no. No, it’s quite alright, thank you. My brother—have you met my brother, Mr. Argent? This,” she tugged Noah forward by the arm, “is my brother, Noah.”

“Let go, Lizzie! Of course we’re acquainted! Hullo Jasper, old chap. How are you?”

Jasper nodded at him. “I’m doing quite well, thank you. I wasn’t aware you had returned from your latest expedition. I hope things went well?”

“Ah, yes, just arrived this afternoon! Promised Lizzie here I’d stop in to see her as soon as I got back, so here I am!”

“You promised no such thing!”

“I most certainly did!”

“Hah! More like you want me to treat you to dinner because you spent all your pocket money!” Elisabeth turned her attention back to Jasper. “Anyway, as I was saying, Noah can help me set things to right. Then,” she gave her brother an arch look, “he can treat me to dinner.”

“Are you certain? It would go faster with three, I’m sure.”

“Not, not at all.” “Sounds spiffing!” the siblings replied in unison. Elisabeth shot Noah a dirty look to which he shrugged.

“That is, of course, only if you don’t have some other work to do or place to be. If you have other business to attend to, I perfectly understand and would hate to delay you,” Elisabeth said sweetly, stepping on Noah’s foot when he started to interrupt.

“I have no urgent business at the moment,” Jasper replied, wondering at their antics but choosing not to comment.

“Lovely!” Elisabeth said brightly. “Just lovely,” she hissed to Noah as they made their way back to the library. “How are we supposed to look at the box and that map now? With him around?”

“Maybe he could help us.”

“No, absolutely not!”

“Why not? What’s the harm?”

“Because… because…what if he goes to the curator first and, and I don’t know!”

Noah looked at her in surprise. “Why Lizzie, are you jealous?”

“You try being constantly reminded that the only reason you have a job is because of our family and not your own merits, plus being underestimated because you’re a woman and then you can judge me all you like!” With that she flounced into the brightly lit library and began gathering up fallen detritus, leaving Noah shaking his head behind her.

“I knew she was more bothered than she’d say,” he sighed ambling after her.

“Noah, perhaps you and I could work on setting the shelves into place while your sister gathers the books and papers; she’d know best where they go, after all,” Jasper called to him as he finished righting one of the shelves.

Noah did not miss Elisabeth’s ears turning pink at the praise, and, grinning, answered, “Sounds like a plan. Wouldn’t want to get in the way of Lizzie and her archives. Could get messy —er— messier that is.”

“I heard that!”

Jasper looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “The librarian’s work is quite important to effective scholarship in these archives, or do you disagree?” His gaze slid to Elisabeth, her arms full of papers, hair in almost as much disarray as the archives, muttering to herself as she sorted things.

“Oh no, I agree completely,” Noah replied cheerfully, grabbing one side of a shelf and preparing to lift it. “I just wouldn’t have the patience to attempt it myself.” He shot Elisabeth a_ see he’s not so bad_ look.

“I can _still_ hear you, you know!” she retorted, frowning back. “Aren’t you supposed to be moving shelves, not carrying on like a gossiping old woman?”

“Alright, alright, we’re going,” Noah laughed. It was just possible that the drink he’d had before coming had put him in an exceptionally good mood. Or maybe it was the fact that after all this time he had actually, finally found something other than scraps. Or maybe just the delight of being able to tease his sister again after several months out of the city. Either way, his steady stream of inane chatter made the task of cleaning up and reorganizing the library go faster for all three of them.

“Well that’s the last of it,” Elisabeth said, setting a last neat stack of papyrus in its place. “Thank you both for your help,” she added with a tired smile.

Noah slung an arm around her shoulder, “Simply doing my brotherly duty, you know.”

Elisabeth caught Jasper’s eye and the two of them shared a brief exasperated smile. Diverting her gaze she said, “I was mostly talking to Mr. Argent, as I am sure you are well aware.”

Similarly avoiding her gaze, Jasper said, “No need to thank me, Miss Dai. It behooves everyone working here to have the library in order for tomorrow.”

“Why, what’s special about tomorrow?” Noah asked, his curiosity never difficult to pique.

“Investors are visiting,” Elisabeth answered sourly, giving him a look that he could not interpret.

Awkwardly, Jasper said, “Well, now that that’s all sorted, I suppose I should be on my way.”

“Don’t let us keep you Argent!” Noah said, clapping him on the shoulder. “We need to sort out where we’re going to be eating and catch up!”

“Yes,” Elisabeth said in a voice that was a little too sweet. “Don’t let us keep you from your evening plans.”

“Goodnight then, to both of you, “Jasper replied before he left, feeling rather as though he had just been summarily dismissed and not entirely sure what to make of it.

After he left, Noah rounded on Elisabeth. “What was that last bit for? You sounded quite rude!”

“I did not! I was perfectly civil” When Noah raised his brows in disbelief, she said defensively, “Oh you heard him, Noah! He only helped us because_ investors_ are coming tomorrow! Investors who would probably love to get a hold of _your_ puzzle box!”

“I don’t think this is about the puzzle box at all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, my dear, nothing at all. Let’s just focus on Hamunaptra for now. Either way, Jasper is gone now. Though I still think you’re being oddly harsh.”

Cheeks burning, Elisabeth focused her attention on the shelves. “Hmm, where to start,” she murmured simply to keep from having to say anything else. She supposed she might have been a little rude. _After all, there’s really no good reason to think Jasper would try to take credit for the discovery. Quite the opposite,_ she mused. He was always unfailingly polite to her, and if he was around, offered to help her with things from higher shelves, though part of her was convinced that was a precautionary measure. Realizing she’d been blankly staring at the shelves without really seeing them she sighed, “I’ll apologize to him for my rudeness tomorrow.”

“Good girl! I knew you’d see I was right!”

“Could you sound anymore like Mother? Goodness Noah, you’re turning into a mother hen in your old age!”

“I’m only two years older than you, and if you’re going to be needlessly prickly to such a handsome man in my presence, I am most definitely going to take you to task for it!” he replied stepping up to the shelves to look for texts himself while Elisabeth spluttered beside him. He looked at her askance. “Oh don’t try to tell me you never thought the same thing. You’ve been working together for close to a year now.”

“He is my _coworker_ Noah! You can’t just go around saying things like that!”

“You mean the truth? Please, Lizzie, I’m sure just about everyone who comes here says the same thing unless they’re blind.”

“Maybe so, but they aren’t my brother talking about my coworker, who by the way, has a higher standing here! Why didn’t you just ask him to dinner if that’s how you’re going to be?” she snapped.

“Not my type,” he replied with a shrug. “I said he was handsome, not that I was interested.

“You are impossible!”

“You love me anyway.”

“I do, but one of these days, I’m certain you’ll do something to land me in an early grave! First that skeleton in the museum, then all that nonsense about Jasper.” She paused. “Ah, here we go! This book should help.”

With a grin to rival the Cheshire Cat’s, Noah followed her to a reading stand.

“Alright let’s see here page… two hundred seventy-one should have some information for us I think…” Realizing he was looking at her instead of perusing the index, Elisabeth huffed, “What is that look for?”

“You called him by his first name.”

“Who?”

“Jasper.”

“I most certainly did not!”

“Just now you did,” Noah leaned on the reading stand, still grinning.

“Oh hush up and read you great nuisance! Or I might decide to shove you back in that sarcophagus— puzzle box, map, and all!” Elisabeth snapped, feeling her cheeks warm.

Laughing, Noah held his hands up. “Alright, alright. Let’s not be too hasty here!” He peered over her shoulder and together, they began reading, quickly getting absorbed in the texts.

**Author's Note:**

> The Mummy and The Mummy Returns are some of my favorite movies from when I was a kid, and definitely influenced the kinds of media I like and my writing. Part of the influence for Noah came from Johnathan Carnahan, and, although I didn't realize it when I first started writing for her, Elisabeth is definitely influenced by my love of Evie O'Connell nee Carnahan! So what else could I do but throw the two disaster siblings in a Mummy AU fic?
> 
> Though I'll mostly be staying true to the nature of the '99 film, I have, and will continue to, tweak things to suit my purposes and the nature of this being a crossover. Jasper's role is of course the biggest tweak I've made so far, and I'm not entirely sure where it will go from here either. I am enjoying the dynamic change compared to what I usually have between him and Elisabeth though, so expect to see lots of it in future installments xD 
> 
> I do plan on having some elements inspired by the 1932 Mummy movie eventually, simply because I thought it might be fun to play a little with those as well. If you haven't watched it, I recommend it! It's an old classic film, but it's interesting to see the way the genre has changed over time!
> 
> I debated using something else for a title, but really, why mess with a good thing? Also titles are hard.


End file.
